A peek at In/Out, an internal app at 37signals

For about the last year we’ve been using an internal app we developed called In/Out. This tool grew out of our need to keep track of what people are doing right now, plus the last few things people have completed.

We used to do this in Campfire. At the beginning of every day people would check [in] with a list of things they wanted to do. At the end of the day they’d check [out] with a list of things they actually did. It was a good way to see what people had planned for the day, and what actually happened that day.

Twice a day updates weren’t enough

But once in the morning and once at the end of the day wasn’t really enough information to know what people were working on right now. So we often asked “Matt, what are you working on?” or “Sam, what’s keeping you busy right now?” We knew there had to be a better way. Interrupting people just to find out what they were doing was counterproductive.

In/Out was born

So we built a little tool in a couple days called In/Out. In/Out let everyone set their current status (“Working on the Affiliate Program” or “Preparing for my presentation on Friday”), plus In/Out allowed you to make journal entries for the things you’ve finished (“Updated book proposal” or “Modernized list reordering” or “Deployed Backpack calendar reminders”). People were encouraged to be as specific as they wanted to be.

One screen, left and right

Your stuff was on the left and everyone else’s stuff was on the right. It was a one-screen app with everything right in front of you. It was killer. We quickly got a handle on who was busy on this and who finished that.

Here’s what it looks like:

Other people would find this useful, yeah?

We had been thinking of releasing In/Out as its own product, but it would require a fair bit of work which we knew we’d never get around to. We’d have to build a site, allow people to sign up, and deal with all the other stuff that comes with launching a brand new product. We knew In/Out had a lot of value, but we just had more valuable things to spend our time on right now.

Coming to a Backpack near you?

Over the past few days we’ve been working on adding the In/Out concept to Backpack. It seems like a good fit since relaunching Backpack as more of an intranet and workgroup tool.

So we’ve retired In/Out internally at 37signals and are now using the version we built into Backpack. It’s not public yet — we’re going to use it for the next few days and see how it feels. If we think it’s a good fit we’ll likely launch it publicly as part of Backpack sometime in the next few weeks.

GeeIWonder

FredS

This would be awesome! My staff is spread around in their home offices, so this would be really helpful to know what people are doing without calling them for 10 minutes to find out! (Not so I can spy on them, but so I don’ t pass them something else to do when their plate is full already!)

We use Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack every day, but it can get a little confusing where to go for reminders/to-dos… where to go for latest messages, etc. I would love to see that remedied sometime too…. either way, can’t wait to use in/out!

This would be really useful to me if integrated with my time tracking tools. I use the timesheet timers at Harvest (getharvest.com) all day. If my teammates had access to that and could see what the timer’s currently spinning on, it’d be a no-brainer.

If Twitter had been around would you still have developed this internal app?

MI

on 17 Apr 08

beth: None of us actually used Twitter at the time, so I think it’s safe to say that we would have. Our use of the [IN] and [OUT] tags is what motivated the development of the In/Out app.

JF

on 17 Apr 08

Beth, it may seem like a small thing, but Twitter wouldn’t work for us because it only has one field. We discovered that two fields: - 1] Status (persistent until changed), and 2] Entry (stuff that’s done) - was what made in/out work for us.

Good job guys, this is actually very similar to an app I’ve wanted to build for a while but have been too busy with other things (planypus, elastic server on demand). A sort of internal twitter with a team status view. I had a few more unfleshed out ideas about this but what you guys have done here is the core of the idea: an easy way to see what everyone is up to.

Willie Abrams

on 17 Apr 08

I want.

Brad

on 17 Apr 08

This is awesome. I have been wanting a tool like this for awhile.

I have to say, though, I think I’m losing track of your metaphors. Backpack is an intranet tool, but Basecamp is for project tracking – and yet I track what I’m working on (presumably for a project!) in Backpack? That is a little confusing. If I want the other people on my project to see what I’m doing, shouldn’t this go in Basecamp?

Not trying to be a jerk – I just really don’t get it. Nice work on a cool tool.

Kelly Parsons

on 17 Apr 08

Would you considering adding this to Basecamp? That’s where we live and would have the most context for us.

Yaphi

on 17 Apr 08

I am also of the “meh” group. How about you add Status to Campfire like every other IM client. Bam problem solved.

This is adding a big function to Backpack that very few people would use.

Boo.

Karim

JF,
But why there are 2 fields? I found it confusing. Why you have “Status” field which is persistent until changed? Why can’t just have last entry (stuff that’s done) as a latest status. I think it’s loosing the simplicity.

Can you please write about some of your reasonings behind this decision? Basically what value that extra Status field adds?

Yaphi

I am guessing most people here use Basecamp in someway. Wouldn’t it be better to integrate the concept into that? Notifications of completed todos in Campfire, emails, etc.

Scott

on 17 Apr 08

We are kind of doing the same thing in backpack right now too. It is a bit of a pain because we are sort of retyping what is already in a todo somewhere else.

What I would love to see is a way to “check out” a to-do from Bascamp, Backpack and/or highrise and have that show up as “what I’m doing now” in one central place (backpack) like you show above. Then if I checked it in and/or marked it complete, it would show up as being completed in the same central location.

Tim

on 17 Apr 08

@37signals

What is “BP journal” has mentioned a few times in the screen shot.

New feature on the way?

JF

on 17 Apr 08

JF, But why there are 2 fields? I found it confusing. Why you have “Status” field which is persistent until changed? Why can’t just have last entry (stuff that’s done) as a latest status. I think it’s loosing the simplicity.

Because your status often stays the same even though you are doing different stuff all day.

Status could say something like “Working on the Affiliate Program” yet your entries could be like “Designed the affiliate welcome screen” “Fixed an issue where signup would send the wrong email” etc. So I know Jeff is working on the Affiliate Program now and I can check his entries to see what he’s actually finished so far.

Status is bigger picture, entries are granular. When you use it you totally get it, but I could see it being a bit unclear just looking at the screen.

Tim

on 17 Apr 08

Also, I’m confused by the interface in the screen shot.

Is what is listed “to do” for everyone? Or is that what has been completed?

Jason, I know it would be more work making In/Out a stand alone app. but I think it would be worth it. That way it keeps BP cleaner and gives the option to use In/Out in a separate tab.

Keep it simple.

JF

on 17 Apr 08

That way it keeps BP cleaner and gives the option to use In/Out in a separate tab.

Having it in Backpack or out of Backpack wouldn’t have any affect on having it in a separate tab. You could have in/out in its own browser tab even if it was in Backpack.

Brad

on 17 Apr 08

@JF True, but I can use it in a Fluid app with a slick icon if it’s separate :)

Willie Abrams

on 17 Apr 08

As I noted earlier, I want this, but tying it into Backpack is interesting. Basecamp is where a lot of my team does their work.

We tried Backpack for intranet kinds of things, but we end up going back to Basecamp for messages, iCal for our calendars and a wiki for documentation. Backpack pages don’t work for us for documentation (no compare versions, somewhat awkward editing, links to other pages was taken out) and neither do Writeboards since their contents cannot be searched.

I really like the idea of two fields. I posted about Twitter for business a long time ago due to the same exact issue. I spent more time wondering what the team was doing instead of focusing on my own tasks. Knowing what the team is doing is very important, but not to the point where you have to bother everyone.

We actually don’t use Twitter anymore for these updates. I think we phased it out because it was too public and not everyone wanted to be in “private” status.

As a team lead, Subversion integration has worked really well for us. I always know what someone is working on based on their commits. Of course, this is just for code, but it still helps a lot. I’m looking forward to your solution in Backpack.

I’m going to go with the “Backpack, not Basecamp?” crowd. As I read the blog post I actually read basecamp, it was only on re-reading that I figured out that no, it was not going to go into your flagship business collaboration tool.

I know you’ve relaunched Backpack recently, and maybe this is part of a drive to get businesses to start using it, (put useful features that would, in the past, have been rolled into Basecamp, into it), but I think the two are starting to step on each others’ toes.

I think this is great, I use a GTD like system in backpack to move things around from someday, todo, next and my daily lists… This looks like it could help streamline and archive what I do already, yay!

One question, will this be for the multi user backpack, the single user or both?

I use Basecamp with a very small group and can’t really afford to add on another monthly charge for Backpack. The ironic thing is I started with Backpack and then moved to Basecamp because of a lot of the limitations of Backpack that have now been remedied (mainly the single user thing, but a few other issues as well).

I still can’t make up my mind what would be better for us. I’d love to have this and the group calendar feature (we don’t really use Milestones) but the Backpack plan I would need is actually more expensive.

Obviously there’s some crossover in how people are using the two. Are there any plans to integrate features? Or maybe add some Backpack features as options on Basecamp accounts? I’m sure it’s not that simple, but the lines between the two are starting to look a little blurry.

Nicholas Henry

I’m going to elaborate on my last post and agree with what some are saying. I’ve been a backpack user that switched to basecamp and then added highrise and now I don’t know what to do!? I would love to have a calendar web view but instead have to sync ical with both systems because I can’t afford to pay for every single application, not to mention they overlap in MANY ways and I wouldn’t know where to put certain info. It’s hard enough decided whether to put tasks in highrise or basecamp.

My Suggestion::

This seems like a VERY simple application and I’d love to see it as being free for current paying customers of any product and making it available for say $10 for non customers, or maybe even free, just limit the users associated with an account. THIS WOULD BE AMAZING

Our team does the equivalent of this at the beginning of the day, and I essentially do this on my whiteboard all day, but I can see the value of having it in front of me (and the rest of the team) especially in regards to projects that multiple people on the team could work on depending on their immediate schedule.

On a related note, am I the only one who finds the different & overlapping feature sets between Backpack & Basecamp confusing? Why were they made as separate products anyway? Of course, it’s better for 37s’ bottom line to sell 2 products instead of one, but I don’t see the core functional difference… they’re both collaboration tools. Or else, I’m just missing the point:

To-Dos, Files, and Messages in both.
Milestones or Group Calendar are functionally similar.
Reminders or To-Dos are functionally similar.
Is one “better” than the other (a superset)?
Are they complementary and meant to work together (modular)?
Are they targeted to different sets of users with independent needs?

I don’t see a clear “yes” to any of these questions… so I really don’t understand the separation.

JF

Basecamp is a project management app. You use it with clients to collaborate on projects, set deadlines, assign responsibilities, manage multiple projects at once, track time, deliver mockups and files, and chat in real time via Campfire integration.

Backpack is an intranet app. You use it with your co-workers to share knowledge, notes, files, announcements, reminders, calendars across your office (or as a virtual office). There are no responsibilities like Basecamp, there are no projects like Basecamp, there are no clients like Basecamp, there’s no hierarchy like Basecamp, there’s one message board not separate boards for each project like Basecamp, there’s no notion of something late like Basecamp, etc.

Physical metaphors…

Basecamp is like your file cabinet. You have sections (clients) and inside those sections you have folders (projects) and inside those folders you have stuff (messages, to-dos, deadlines, files, time tracking) that relates specifically to that project which relates specifically to that client.

Backpack, on the other hand, is like a corkboard many businesses have in their hallway. It’s flat. You can tack up announcements, share relevant information, check the calendar, remind someone to do something, etc. It’s also like the drawer in the supply room or the kitchen—a place to put stuff you need access to all the time.

Yes, the products have some tools in common, but that doesn’t make them the same product.

Look at all the kinds of paper you have on your desk. You may have post-its, you may have 8.5×11, you may have a legal pad, you may have nice letterhead, you may have a small little notebook, you may have a large sketchpad. They are all paper, but they serve very different purposes. You wouldn’t send a bill to a client on a post-it. You wouldn’t use your finest letterhead to sketch a map for someone. But it’s all paper.

So just because two different products have to-do lists, for example, it doesn’t make them the same product.

JF

on 17 Apr 08

@JF, I see your point. But I would rather call that bigger picture as “Task” than “Status”. And I would call granular those edits as “Updates” on tasks.

That’s too specific to a domain. This feature can be used for work (in an in/out capacity as described above), as a personal journal (this is where I am today and this is what I did today), or in a variety of other ways depending on how creative you are.

I’ll chime in with those who are asking for this to be part of Basecamp. I’m not saying it wouldn’t make perfect sense inside Backpack also, it’s just that a lot of people (myself included) still just use Backpack as a single user-a place to simply “put stuff”. Basecamp, on the other hand is THE business tool-which, by nature, involves other people. That is, it’s almost silly to use Basecamp as a “solo”, but “solo” in Backpack (I can only imagine) is quite common. So it seems that In/Out fits best in BC, and would also compliment BP nicely.

I LOVE the simplicity of the concept. Just not sure I agree with the limitation of Backpack-only. Why not a new (perhaps optional) In/Out tab in BOTH?

(For what it’s worth, like many have said, I too still pine for the 37Signals “ONE APP”—the one that seamlessly and simply unites the best elements of Basecamp and Backpack. I already pay for Highrise and Backpack, and my job pays for Basecamp. I would love to SIMPLIFY and pay for the ONE APP. Sorry, I know you probably hear this 87 times a day.)

In response your last post, Jason. I wonder if perhaps your ideal vision for the delineation between Basecamp and Backpack is slightly unrealistic. In both companies that I’ve been in that use Basecamp, I would say that 85-90% of the time, BASECAMP was being used for precisely the things you attributed to Backpack (corkboard, etc.). In fact, most of the time, we didn’t even give our clients access. It was more valuable to us as a way to manage a project and interact with our vendors, sub-contractors, etc.

In a perfect world, we’d all see the perfect distinction you’re trying to make between the two apps and use them appropriately….. I’m just not sure everyone “gets” that.

Yaroslav

on 17 Apr 08

XTT by entp is looking far better from my POV; also, it actually is a time tracker.

Bill

on 17 Apr 08

Almost daily I wish the features of Basecamp and Backpack were available in one product.

Some companies may only need one or the other, but many companies could use the two rolled up. I know we could and we would.

Simon Graham

on 17 Apr 08

I like the idea. Going to be unoriginal here (as this has been mentioned a few times), but it is “Enterprise Twitter”.

This must work nicely with your four day week approach as you know who is around and who isn’t at a glance. Cool.

Jay

on 17 Apr 08

+1 in not wanting this in backpack. Put it in basecamp where I actually collaborate with people. Backpack is more of a personal tool.

Hey guys- this sounds great. Would be extremely helpful for any team, especially one in different time zones.

I have two suggestions that might add to the UX of this app.
1) Adding a simple progress indicator next to items (either that or being able to differentiate between short and long tasks – maybe they are different colours or sizes).
2) Adding a location and time zone description next to each user’s name.

I love how you guys build tools out of internal needs to improve productivity. It is how web apps should be created. Fantastic.

I’m glad to hear it’s coming to BackPack – there are some people (you know who you are) who don’t ‘check in’ to backpack often enough. Features like this help make it an app that people keep open all-the-time.

Here’s another idea though – why not open source the app as it is. It would be a great rails sample app. No cleanup, no support, just the tarball…..

DHH

on 17 Apr 08

Part of the reason why we think Backpack is the natural place for this feature is because it encapsulates much more than just project work, which is the domain of Basecamp. Basecamp doesn’t have any loose buckets for putting in other stuff, things that doesn’t map neatly to a project.

Backpack, on the other hand, is exactly for all that stuff that doesn’t fit nicely into any of the existing categories (say projects for Basecamp or people for Highrise).

Our in/outs were part project-related, part people-related, part just random errands, fixes, part what we’ve blogged about, part a million other bits.

Brad

on 17 Apr 08

@DHH I hear what you’re saying, but one could just as easily argue that many tasks that people work on are project-related, and are thus relevant to Basecamp.

Status belongs to a person – not to his intranet, not to his projects. I’d wager that the people who care (and have a vested interest in) what I’m doing from moment to moment are usually the people who are working on projects with me—the people in my Basecamp projects.

I must say, as a solo account holder, this looks like a wonderful tool for personal motivation and staying on task. Which is to say, I do hope it debuts in single-user setups in addition to its obvious use in group plans.

The way we use the 37S suite of apps right now, Backpack is the perfect place for it. In fact, I wouldn’t want it to be in Basecamp AND Backpack.

Looking forward to getting to use it.

GaryM

on 18 Apr 08

I must second the comments of Ben Delaney. Our team works strictly with Basecamp and EVERYTHING we do is project related, and we have many projects going on at once. IN/OUT is a natural for this type of environment - Basecamp - to see what my co-workers and direct reports are working on. Having just to-dos floating about all in one place will not work with our world, and we’re only a team of 5. Our projects span from a couple of days to several months and each project’s timeline and tasks are encapsulated from each other, even with a small team.

I also must second the comments re: overlapping features - even within individual products. For example, in Basecamp to-dos & milestones are separate, yet in reality are VERY related. Yet they are disconnected - this is a blurry edge. The Basecamp & Backpack products edges are blurry as is clearly indicated by the many responding here and the very different views expressed on what each is intended for.

So, please, give an ear to your customers here and see that we actually DO NOT fit the “basecamp is for clients” and “backpack is your intranet” conception you are holding. There’s a lot of workplace collaboration using Basecamp that cannot be disregarded—and thus, IN/OUT (which looks EXCELLENT) would be fabulous to be in there.

Doesn’t Basecamp do this? I just see it as the tool for communicating and coordinating “stuff” with “people I work with”. But that sounds really similar to your description of Backpack…

As a freelancer, the distinction between my clients and my co-workers is really blurry, so suggesting that one tool is for collaborating with this group of people and the other tool should be reserved for another group of people doesn’t make much sense… The partitions just get in the way.

If it’s for the “intranet”: I can just mark any Basecamp to-do list or message “private”. Or else I create an internal project… Basecamp provides structure for everything. So it’s a bit hackish. But it beats having to maintain things in two separate worlds.

From your description of Backpack, it really sounds like I don’t need it. Basecamp does all of that (admittedly, some in more limited or forced ways—e.g. using milestones for calendar entries), and it works.

If you scroll up and re-read all your “there are no foos like Basecamp” description of Backpack, it really does sound like Backpack is a functional subset—but with a few fleshed out features in some arbitrary places…

Oh, and while physical metaphors can be helpful guides, they’re often not the best way to design a new workflow from scratch. Digital tools should help us connect the things that were kept separate by necessity in the real world.

Jay (not the same as above)

on 18 Apr 08

Jason – 37Signals a tiny company, just start talking with each other. It sounds much more disruptive to have to fiddle with In/Out than simply using IM.

In/Out sounds like a control tool to keep people under a managers thumb. No need for it in my organisation.

Dan

on 18 Apr 08

Man, seems like with some people wanting it in Backpack, others in Basecamp, and yet others still (COUNT ME IN HERE) see a great use for this separate from either… why not create a separate app? It seems lightweight enough that it could be a ta-da list style app, free for all.

I would really like to see this functionality added to Campfire instead of or in addition to Backpack. At my company, Campfire has become the communication hub. The In/Out app seems like a natural extension for Campfire for people to communicate their status.

I look forward to seeing it in Backpack. I do a lot of work in Backpack and find it a lot easier to explain to my co-workers than Basecamp.

I tried to get them to use Basecamp and they saw no use for it. I think this program might help our office keep track of what each other is doing because we end up sometimes working on the same thing. Especially since we are spread out across the country.

Looking forward to seeing it. It looks great!

Sean Abrahams

on 18 Apr 08

I second Aaron B.’s proposal. Add it to Campfire.

Sean

on 18 Apr 08

+1 Basecamp. I finally convinced my team to use Basecamp for PM, I won’t be able to get them to adopt Backpack as well. Please add this to Basecamp.

GeeIWonder

on 18 Apr 08

Hmm… it almost sounds like 37s (or a faction therein) is arguing against a ‘want’ that seems to be clearly articulated by their customer base (or a part thereof).

err…per the Twitter comments, isn’t this Twitter? Why not have Twitter accounts and use the RSS feed to see what everyone is doing right now?

Peter Jennings

on 18 Apr 08

I’ve been wanting a service like this for a while – it is a great way to keep yourself accountable. I considered Twitter for this, but that’s not really what its intended for.

As for where In/Out should fit within the various 37 Signals products (I use all, except Ta-Da), to me Backpack is the obvious fit. Whilst many people may be using it in different ways to how it was intended to be used, Basecamp is primarily for projects.

Would you really want your clients knowing that you weren’t working on their project when you’ve got something else to do? In any case, where would In/Out fit within Basecamp? Basecamp is project-centric, so unless you only have one project, how would you decide where to put it? Surely you wouldn’t have people updating In/Out in every project they’re working on?

As for using Campfire or IM for updates on what you’re doing, I think the idea is that this information is there (in In/Out) in case people do want to know what you’re doing. They may not want to get every update you make or even know what you’re doing all of the time, but if they do want to know they can use this without disturbing you. Makes a lot of sense to me.

I’m not sure why so many people are complaining about a feature that 24 hours ago they hadn’t even thought they might want.

Berserk

on 18 Apr 08

There seems to be a need for consistent labeling, I see at least three ways that various people mark what they’ve done ([svn], svn:, basecamp). That would take away from the simplicity, but might be something that should be ‘enforced’ per organization.

@Jay: In/Out sounds like a control tool to keep people under a managers thumb.

Since they’re working all over I certainly see a reason for wanting to know what people are working on. Constantly IM-ing each other is too much in your face, IMHO. I plan on working one day/week from home sometime in future and might implement something similar so that my (non-developer) colleagues can see what I’m doing. I see no constantly-update-or-get-smacked in this.

Jake

on 18 Apr 08

Separate free app (a la Writeboard) added optionally to the premier plans of HR, BC, and BP. Where people use OpenID, their statuses would be linked across apps.

I say this because it would be super useful for my sales staff in HR, and I haven’t seen that mentioned yet.

PITA to implement, but I think what you’re hearing is that this is a PAINFULLY NEEDED feature for distributed businesses. You guys should go full-throttle with it—the killer app that keeps the sales staff (HR), freelancers (BC), and admins/ops (BP) in sync. Coooooommmee onnnn guys!

Eric

on 18 Apr 08

I think it looks great! I can understand the desire to have this as part of Basecamp, but the OpenID bar would ease some of the pain in this respect. Look forward to seeing this in Backpack.

I think the main issue here is how increasingly diffucult it is to use multiple products together. I have to have a tab for Basecamp, a tab for Backpack, and a tab for Highrise. What you guys need is a simple “One-Stop” shop where I can have all my accounts in one place and can easily switch between your products.

It makes sense. You don’t need to charge less for them, just make them easier to switch between.

As a result of this post, and the hope of in/out coming to backpack, we created a new backpack account for our business today. (Actually, we rekindled an old account.)

First thought was, “I wonder how best I should set this all up?” Often when you guys at SvN show screenshots of your own usage of your tools (even when just demoing new features), I seem to get ideas for how to better use your apps in our own contexts. So, would you be willing to post more about your own usage of your apps?

And, way off topic—sometime in the past you mentioned splitting your day into two halves, one in which you IM/messaging was used, and then a “quiet” half. Do you still do that?

Carl

on 18 Apr 08

We have a hard enough time getting our employees to fill out regular daily timesheets let alone constantly updated status reports like this. It seems to pressure people into padding hours and tasks in order to appear more productive.

DHH

on 18 Apr 08

Seth, have a look at our OpenBar. It ties all the products you’re using together with a black bar at the top you can use to jump back and forth the applications with.

Evan

on 18 Apr 08

Not a Backpack user, but I don’t find this too thrilling – I’m sure that need for this sort of thing does vary, but it kind of feels like I’m being watched too closely if I have to constantly report on what I’m doing at this granular of a level.

I think I’d resent filling this out every day. I’d be afraid that somebody somewhere up the chain, separated enough from technical issues, would be looking at it and think I wasn’t making enough progress, etc. I’d rather my manager give me a due date and let me go to work as I see fit, and I’ll keep him up to date on how it’s going in person/email/phone, whenever he asks me.

Steve Mallett

on 18 Apr 08

I like the idea very much. Status is very useful. I’d like to it in basecamp vs backpack.

Sounds to me that there are some organizations that already use from 37S products that wouldn’t use In/Out with the best of intentions. Another reason to make it a separate product (free or otherwise).

Brandie

on 18 Apr 08

I think this would be a great addition! I really hope that this gets released.

Why not open source the sucker? Lots of companies would be willing help out with the hosting and development and then you guys can do your subscription on it when you are ready…

wilco

on 18 Apr 08

We use Basecamp, and I’ve my own account for Backpack. This is in/out a function we are missing in BC, we can not go for Backpack with the company. It would be to confusing to use another thing next to BC. And also there is no time to use both. As I said I’ve also a BP account, and it looks great, but I don’t find the time to use it.
What happens is that we use BC for clientprojects and for internal companythings. For that we have made projects witch are only for the people of our company, with names like ‘For all’ , ‘companyprotocols’, ‘tracking orders’, ‘coaching’ and projectnames for al people of the company (‘project Wilco’, project Gerard’ ) where the can put there things, for example things that don’t fit into a project but have to be saved where they can easy find it and also the others can read it when they need to (with emailnotification this is easy).
We also use BC for education. we have a second account for the people who are learning/working. We provide one day school and 4 days of work. The students keep a digital portfolio in BC on a project with their one name. And again we keep the working and studingprotocols there and the tracking of things they do.

It would be great to have a better tracking of what our people and students do. Not only because I and my boss want to know what everybody is doing, but also because we try to let people work projectminded. They have to organise their work because that better for them and for the company. Basecamp is a projecttool, but that does not mean that everybody can work projectminded. It is difficult to get everybody work like that, some people create their on chaos, where others work very very projectbased. For me and my boss there is some work helping keeping people on the track. But also creating from chaos is ok, if it works, and Me and my boss can anly see if it works if we can track down what everybody is doing. Problable a lot of companys like ours have a meeting every morning ore two times a week to get people on the job we want them to do and check deadlines. With a tool like in/out we have much more a tool in BC to check witch things are running and we couold do with less meetings.

So one of the things that out students have to evry morning is to write down what they a going to do, and on the end of the day, what they have done. For the other people, they use bc for tasks and milesstones, but we don’t know iff they are really working on the most important tasks on that moment.

Tom H.

on 18 Apr 08

Great idea guys… thanks, I can’t wait to put this into practice.

We use Basecamp for external conversations, Highrise for contact management, and we have a Backpack account we’re using for intranet. This seems like a perfect fit for Backpack. After all, if you’re effectively using Basecamp’s other features (milestones, time tracking, etc.) In/Out doesn’t really apply there, imho.

We’re having some accountability issues with our folks getting things done. We know that people are generally more inclined to keep up with commitments made in writing and when they’re under a sort of peer review.

I’m looking forward to that kind of accountability and having a place where we can peek in and see what’s getting done with folks working at different locations around the country.

I thought this was a cool idea, so I whipped up a clone using Google’s App Engine.

http://upto.appspot.com/

Feel free to delete this comment if you’re not cool with it, but for those people who can’t wait for backpack’s version and have a GMail account… No disrespect intended. I just really liked the idea. Thanks for all the great work.

It looks like you guys created this app 2 months after Jamis reviewed/rewrote an app I submitted to The Rails Way. Was my app any inspiration for this?

http://www.therailsway.com/2007/2/13/signout-part-1

We don’t care, but just want to make sure we aren’t blamed for copying this app since we have been working on extending it along the lines of “twitter for companies” which comes close to what you are doing.

You guys should release this like you did ta-da list… but offer to integrate it into Basecamp or Backpack like you can with Campfire and Basecamp.

That way you can see how people like it / use it before integrating it into one specific product.

Greg

on 23 Apr 08

Basecamp, Highrise & Backback seem like most of the same software, except one has one extra item. Basecamp = projects, Highrise = Contact Management, Backpack = calendar and ‘pages’. If they were a venn diagram, they would form an intersection comprising of about 80% of each. You would merge them into backpack as a contacts tab module and a projects tab module, and tada! You got it. This integration can also offer better synergy between the applications. Also the difference between pages and writeboards seems somewhat redundant, they could easily be merge and simplified into one product. Also the wiki-quirks of writeboard could be abstracted and simplified further. I don’t know from a usability standpoint if special syntax vs. buttons and keyboard shortcuts are better.

Pervasive, easy versioning could also be a useful asset, so companies that are completely microsoft office centred don’t have to do the old office trick of TPS report.doc, new TPS report.doc, TPS report2.doc, TPS report39.doc